A commenter says an upset Teddy Locsin says the armed forces should be appealed to intervene; but he also told me that there is also a strong case for the House argument concerning amendments. As Alvin Capino points out, even Alan Paguia can be trotted out in defense of the argument:

We asked Paguia about the argument of former Comelec Chairman Christian Monsod, who like Fr. Bernas was a member of the Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution, that the lack of specific wording for the two chambers of Congress to vote separately was just an oversight.

He said …: “If there is an oversight then the hands of the Supreme Court would be tied because the remedy would no longer be judicial construction but amendment to the Constitution. So, on that point they are construing something that is already clear. You are not allowed to do it… The question is: is there room for construction? There is none.”…

He said there is nothing that the Supreme Court can do since what is written in the 1987 Constitution is very clear. He cited the 1933 Tanada versus Yulo case where the Court was convinced, by reason of extraneous circumstances, that the legislature actually meant something else. The Court, however, ruled that the wording of the law should be followed, since it is fundamental that if the law is clear, there is no room for construction.

Masajo’s parents had marched on the streets in the “people power” revolution that rid the Philippines of Marcos, after 21 years in office. They also attended the funeral of Benigno (Ninoy) Aquino, Marcos’s assassinated rival.

Yet none of this prevented Masajo, a journalism student and head of a national youth organization, from arriving at his own conclusion about the allegations of plunder and extrajudicial killings leveled against Marcos by his many critics.

“History has been quite unfair to President Marcos, primarily because we have only been looking at the bad side of his presidency,” Masajo said. “He did a number of substantial things for the country.”

For a generation of activists like Masajo, too young to have witnessed Marcos’s abuses of power, it is possible to see virtue in a period marked by colossal corruption, yet also relative political stability, when it is contrasted with the disorderly democracy that followed.

This is precisely the mentality that’s keeping the President in power, and which reduces every question to a “let’s be objective about this” defense of the administration -and its allies. For some reason, this argument’s considered a guaranteed way to lose, but really, it’s valid: would a German plead for history to be fairer to the Nazi party, because they gave Germany the autobahn and the Volkswagen?

Thus, the shock waves were felt most keenly at the finance department…

Interviewed about the President’s controversial Executive Order No. 558, Finance Secretary Margarito G. Teves was hard pressed to justify the policy, stressing that the full implications of the order have yet to be digested.

“I still have to talk to the President about it,” he said.

Teves, who also heads the National Credit Council in his capacity as finance secretary, served as secretary general of the Economic Coordinating Council during the Estrada administration — the body that formulated the ban on cheap and behest loans, as a counterweight to some of the former President’s perceived cronies….

“Maybe something can still be done about it,” Teves said, or at the very least, safeguards can be imposed to prevent a repeat of past state-subsidized loan programs which, according to some estimates, cost the government around P40 billion in unrecoverable loans over the last 20 years.

According to sources in the National Credit Council (NCC), Teves’ unease over the policy shift is due, in part, to the fact that he was not consulted over the decision to revive state loan subsidies.

“In fact, he wasn’t even here when the [executive order] was signed,” said an official familiar with the NCC’s workings. “He was totally left out of the decision process here, perhaps because [Palace officials] knew that he would oppose it.”

The NCC, as a whole, was also left out of the loop.

Upon learning of the repeal of President Estrada’s landmark EO 138, its members promptly prepared a briefing paper outlining their concerns.

“Government line agencies may now directly undertake subsidized credit programs that will result in huge fiscal losses,” the paper said. It said GFIs, like the Development Bank of the Philippines and the Land Bank of the Philippines “may no longer concentrate on wholesale lending but instead do retail, [directly competing] with private financial
institutions.”

It also warned that private sector involvement in “credit delivery” might dwindle, worsening the problem or credit access.

So what’s the big deal?
The executive issuance that’s been scrapped represented a policy reform lasting close to a decade. If you take a look at the 2000 Annual Report of the Department of Finance, you’ll see that at the time, the government spoke glowingly of Executive Order 138 (dated August 10, 1999). The report described, in detail, the effort that went into setting up this pretty reasonable policy (see the section on the National Credit Council). Newsstand, in two entries here and here, delves into what’s worrisome about the President’s decision.

See The People’s Daily Online takes a naughty look at a controversial BBC documentary that speculates on the consequences of assassinating George Bush, Jr. -and simulates it. Slate on the continuing fallout from Ann Coulter being fired from her job as a columnist -five years ago. Also, a splendid article in The Economist on modern-day gerrymandering in America.

Seriously, Slate’s Election Scorecard for the Senate, for the House, and for Governors is breathtaking. Imagine the tantalizing possibilities if the same could be done here. I’d like to see something like this map, from Wikipedia, but re-colored in terms of mid-term elections or a national referendum’s projected results!

People don’t really need to do much investigating in order to see that the campaign carried out in the name of war on terrorism has been a colossal failure. The campaign was used to enlarge and generalize the terrorism circle. This is a very important point to highlight. It’s actually very puzzling how decision makers in countries which initiated the war in Iraq won’t admit this truth. They insist on pursuing the same policies that have made things worse.

Take a look at Marvin Tort’s column on elections and the factors that erode their credibility. He wants “technicalities” set aside, because the country needs a clean election. Like the administration cares?

Mike Tan on how we lack an ethics-oriented culture. Speaking of ethics, JB Baylon reminds us of another Macapagal, another Secretary of Justice, and a now-forgotten cause celebre, the Stonehill case.

In the blogopshere, big mango on the “terror expert” brouhaha -it doesn’t help, he says, to punish people for making a fool out of you.

OFW in Hong Kong on the travails of Filipino nurses in New York City (our consul in New York hails the nurses’ case). Meanwhile. caffeine sparks reflects on the Filipino-for-export phenomenon. As I said in a comment in her blog, look at Ireland. We are experiencing our Great Potato Famine. But a renaissance will come. It might take 100 years, but it will come.

Gloria d'Macapal gal

Bill Gates has just opened the School of the future. His foundation contributes so much to the education sector. He took note of the concerns of the industry that schools aren’t churning out graduates with the skills and know-how that businesses require in employees to COMPETE GLOBALLY.

Isn’t it familiar but instead of mouthing bad words and criticizing the government, he did his part.

Gloria d'Macapal gal

The problem in our economy is the availability of works, not the workers. ThatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s the reason why we are able to export thousands of professionals, skilled workers and trained health care workers all over the world. Workers and professionals you can train and incentives are often enough for students to further their education and knowledge knowing that there are jobs and opportunities waiting after and also on- the-job training can always be an option. So, in my humble opinion, our priority is to develop sustainable employment opportunities to our working force with competitive salaries and all these training and educations will just fit into place.

On Political Parties: The subject of which is better; non-political party system (individuals) or a strong party system of government. First, we have to look at all the present set up of all the governments the world over. Just about everyone one is ruled by a party system from a dictatorial one- party system to a tyrannical multi- party system to a very successful and progressive two-party system (the U.S.) to the lively and very transparent party system of Japan, to the long and enduring Monarchial free-for-all party system of Great Britain and lastly for l39 years of our Multi-party system that survive two world wars, the Korean war, the Vietnam war and now is surviving the Iraqi war and the Afghanistan war which we are directly involve. As I said before it is not the party system or the any system at all, it is the people.. Ã¢â‚¬Å“St-p-d.Ã¢â‚¬Â.

cvj

Antonio, the advertising graduate and the high school graduate may not like it but that is irrelevant since those are the realities of the job market. Context is important because it influences the approach to solving the problem. We do not aim to attract investors because there happen to be graduates waiting for them. This is secondary to making sure that our people are trained for whatever jobs the investors require. The key is to be demand-oriented.

I agree that the government should also encourage entrepreneurship, but even under the best of times, only a small subset of graduates will choose this path and a majority will fail. (Unfortunately, as mentioned in the above post, by replacing Erap’s EO 138 with EO 558, Arroyo has taken us another step back in terms of rationalizing the supply of credit.) I also agree that we should encourage savings and further education among young employees. I do not think though that the government would be in any position “to convince the youth to look forward to better jobs“. That would be setting false expectations. As for entering the corporate world, it is up to the business and corporate people to come up with more attractive packages. That’s the way the market system works.

Ca T, it is those who look at problems only in terms of the ‘business point of view’ who live in the ‘Jurassic Age’ (i.e. stuck in the 90’s). Globalization has brought many benefits but at the expense of social exclusion of large portions of the population. These problems have to be addressed politically, and not just from a purely ‘business point of view’.

Vic, isn’t it the case that the system influences the people just as the people influence the workings of the system, i.e. they are mutually constitutive? This is because the system forms the environment in which the people live in, while the people provide the environment in which the Political system operates. That’s why we always have to look at both aspects.

As for entering the corporate world, it is up to the business and corporate people to come up with more attractive packages. ThatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s the way the market system works. Yes, but how can they come up with attractive packages if the business environment is blah? and i don’t think people don’t go corporate because the remuneration packages are unattractive. they don’t go corporate because corporate has no room for them. and there is no room because business is blah. 🙂 and so the cycle goes on and on and on … who will break that cycle? business? no way. why should big business care, one way or the other about our youth? government must do it, even as it promotes these palliative measures on a parallel track.

cvj

Antonio, my understanding (from a previous thread by mlq3) is that the complaint of local businesses is that the Call Center industry is siphoning off graduates that would otherwise apply for a job in their companies. This is why i said that the corporate world needs to come up with more attractive packages if they want to attract the ‘best’ of the labor pool. That’s he only valid form of ‘encouragement’ under the market system. We also have to recognize that *all* our institutions, including big business have to care for the Filipino youth if they know what’s good for them in the long term. Government cannot do it alone.

I agree with you the government is responsible for the local business environment. The local business environment is anemic because of lack of domestic demand, i.e. the market is too small. Lack of domestic demand is largely because the wealth of the country is concentrated on a few. To boost the local market, wealth and property ownership needs to be redistributed to the poor majority. This should be done in exchange for their commitment to maximize their capabilities as productive members of society.

The current government is moving aggressively in the opposite direction towards greater concentration of political power to the ruling elite. Therefore, the best thing the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo government can do to ‘break the cycle’ is for it and its retrograde policies to cease to exist and give way to a leadership that would tackle political and social inequalities head on. That way, we will eventually get our domestic market, our business environment and our high productivity jobs.

cvj

Jumanji, I agree with you on the need to discard ‘glamor’ as a criteria for choosing professions. In an ideal world, a toilet-bowl cleaner would have the same ‘glamor’ as an engineer, businessman or a CEO of a corporation.

In a structurally healthy economy, only a small portion of the the population would be in manufacturing and agriculture since labor productivity in these areas would already be high. We are not there yet, but that is where we should be going. Most of labor would go to services where productivty has not yet caught up.

As far as accountancy and clerical services is concerned, for the Philippines, there is money to be made in back-office as the major corporations (like Procter and Gamble) have been outsourcing these services (i.e. Business Process Outsourcing).

rego

“This is precisely the mentality thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s keeping the President in power, and which reduces every question to a Ã¢â‚¬Å“letÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s be objective about thisÃ¢â‚¬Â defense of the administration -and its allies. For some reason, this argumentÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s considered a guaranteed way to lose, but really, itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s valid: would a German plead for history to be fairer to the Nazi party, because they gave Germany the autobahn and the Volkswagen?”

So theres is no room for objectivity in this political debate, Manolo? This is definitely not good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just because Gloria has lost her decency to govern. Should we throw away all our decency as well??????????????

John Puruntong

rego, we can be decent towards each other, and debate each other by all means. if debate is all you’re after, then everyone can be nice and debate for ever and ever -or until the president is still excactly that in 2011, 2012…

but the debate has to end somewhere and at the rate it is going, it’s going to end in one of several ways, many of them entirely unpleasant. debate is useful in trying to keep the end result as pleasant as possible for everyone, but if it ends in a revolution, or a junta, or with blood in the streets, well….

cvj

Rego, even Teddy Boy Locsin, one of the Congressmen whom you trust and believe in, has said that we should appeal to the Armed Forces to protect the Constitution, in effect, ending the debate. I did not hear it first hand so i’m not sure though whether he was serious or just being bratty.

Jeg

Pardon me. Ive been scanning the comments above on the call-center thingie and I dont get one thing: Why do you think working in a call center or as a medical transcriptionist is a cul-de-sac? Are those companies some kind of Hotel California? Einstein worked in a patent office. Im with cvj on this. There’s a demand, we have a supply. It fits.

One more thing: There’s this inherent bias against those without a college education. We should get over that. The classroom isnt the only place for an education. I sense this attitude of “If youre a college graduate, you shouldnt debase yourself by working in a call center.” Where daheck did that come from?

iniduro ni emilie

ah, jeg, but that was not an ordinary patent office. einstein was evaluating inventions needing expertise on electromagnetism. show me a call center where engineers can examine the foundation of bridges, then let’s encourage our engineering schools to provide electives in the art of telebabad.

seriously, no work is meant to debase the person. exploitation does. stop-gap measure, yes, but the job of note-scribing should not be a long term vision of this country. malaysia is launching an astronaut soon, makes me wonder when we could build a telescope of our own.

tbl

relax lang vic, no one is stupid in this forum. just give your opinion , others will read it and may concur with yours or give the opposite side. give and take lang ang mga blog forums. baka mahyper ka, ikaw din hehehe!

Jeg

From what I gather, inudoro, it was an ordinary patent office and Einstein didnt even bother with the applications submitted. He didnt consider the patent office a cul-de-sac. But that’s beside the point. The point is the seemingly dim view some people have about working in a call center.

A lot of new people we have in the company im working for came from call centers and Id like to think that the training they received there serve them in good stead if they decide to move on. The job of note-scribbling should not be a long term vision of the individual Filipino, let alone the country (unless the individual is happy and content with that, of course). No leader in his or her right mind would advocate note scribbling as a long-term vision.

cvj

iniduro ni emille, like Einstein, i think the Call Center Reps, the transcriptionists and even the toilet bowl cleaners can, if they choose to, still pursue their self-actualization goals in their spare time outside work. Even within the corporate world, most of the available jobs are sh*tty (which explains the popularity of Scott Adam’s Dilbert cartoons) so to expect to get fulfillment from these is to set them up for disappointment. With resources such as the World Wide Web, tons of books and various NGO’s available, all it takes is some self-motivation. As for the Malaysians, i think they have been misusing their resources in prestige projects. We don’t want to follow their example.

tbl

you are right there jeg. anyone can have additional training or experience by doing jobs which may or may not be related to his degree. aany kind of experience, even volunteer works may improve ones ability to compete with the others if he is aspiring for a higher level in the future, kinda like stepping stone for the better.

the thing that bothers us is, it seems that those in the higher ups are contented with what we have. i am sure we can do better than just keep all our professionals in call centers, etc. others may say that that’s the global trend. well, we can somehow do our miniscule part to influence global effect to our country, malaysia, vietnam, south korea etc. are examples of this.

cvj

An illegitimate leadership cannot do more because it has set itself apart from the people. Its imagination is also constrained by the constructed, but powerful realities of globalization. Unfortunately, hitching a ride to globalization is, by itself, not enough to lift the vast majority out of poverty. So far, the only model that would set us up for the 7% to 8% continuous GDP growth needed to lift our countrymen out of poverty is found in the East Asian economies as demonstrated by China and Vietnam:

Step 1: Eliminate social inequalities.
Step 2: Put purchasing power in hands of the common people.
Step 3: Encourage foreign investment both as a platform for export and to participate in the domestic market.

The first hurdle is Step 1. There are those who favor dictatorship (a-la Lee Kuan Yew) to accomplish the above, but a dictatorship that leaves power in the hands of the existing oligarchy will not do as it does not take care of step 1 above. If we are to have a dictatorship, then it has to be a dictatorship for the benefit of the people whose main objective is to eliminate the oligarchs. For the benefit of the rest, it has to initiate an honest to goodness purge of the top. Yes, there will be a new elite, but it will not be composed of anyone identified with the old order.

Alternatively, for a less bloody and more democratic alternative, we can look closely at what they are doing in Latin America to see if they can show us a more moderate alternative path that will also work for us.

Jeg

If we are to have a dictatorship, then it has to be a dictatorship for the benefit of the people whose main objective is to eliminate the oligarchs. For the benefit of the rest, it has to initiate an honest to goodness purge of the top. Yes, there will be a new elite, but it will not be composed of anyone identified with the old order.

A page out of Da Apo’s New Society. True, the fact that it didnt work the first time doesnt mean it might not work with the proper management and moral framework. But Id rather we try to eliminate social inequalities peacefully and organically from without, that is, from the citizenry and not from Apo Makoy’s revolution from Malakanyang. MLQ3 mentioned private initiatives like the Gawad Kalinga, etc., that are a step in the right direction. CVJ is allergic to the term, but when it comes to taking the initiative on this, Im all for ‘making government irrelevant’ since government and oligarchs are natural allies.

cvj

Jeg, thanks for reminding me. I guess Marcos slipped into my subconcious. For all his rhetoric, he turned out to be just another Latin American or Sub-Saharan style kleptocrat, not the Mao, Ho Chi Minh or Park Chung Hee that we needed.

While GK and the like are doing their part, the scope of their actions are confined to the local community level. This is in contrast to the traditional role of government as the guarantor of the people’s welfare at a national level. (This role of government has been one of the casualties of adopting a globalization mindset.) GK and other civil society groups are supposed to supplement, not substitute government. Of course, in the Middle East, you have the Gawad Kalinga counterparts -Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, starting to take on de facto governmental functions. Maybe GK will eventually expand in that direction.

Antonio, the advertising graduate and the high school graduate may not like it but that is irrelevant since those are the realities of the job market. Dude! Irrelevant?! I hope you’re not saying that we should be content with crappy food just because crappy food is all that’s available. Government should take steps to ensure that better options are available. We agree on that. But government should also not peddle call-center work as some tremendous opportunity because it is not. Do you disagree with that?

Yes, jeg. If there is demand and we have supply, its a happy marriage. But we are (or at least I am) arguing against the treatment of call center jobs as prime choices for more qualified individuals. Like I said, let people with lesser qualifications take those jobs. People who are not qualified to be analysts and engineers and doctors and para legals and executive assistants can handle call-center and transcription work, can’t they? why does government have to promote this shotgun style? why can’t government match work with skill by promoting this line of work to people who are not qualified to be anything else?
IMHO, the problem is not just with government. the starbucks generation (also called gen-Y) is composed mostly of people who coast along – doing just enough to get by and not doing enough to truly excel. This combination – government’s short-sightedness and Gen-Y’s underachieving ways – makes for a very bad mix.

It’s not call-center and transcription work I don’t like. It’s this government approach of targetting the wrong sector. If government were to support the creation of vocational schools targeted at producing call-center operators and transcriptionists, well that would be great. and that, i think, would satisfy this demand-supply argument you and several others present.

cvj

I don’t condone Mao’s crimes and experiments which led to millions of lives lost, but he was the equalizer who laid the foundation for Deng’s reforms. Our society, like China before 1949, needs some equalizing.

Gawad Kalinga = Hamas = Hezbollah in the sense of “making government irrelevant”. I’m looking at it from the point of view of the constituencies they serve.

cvj

Antonio, the sentiments of the graduates are irrelevant because the job market is a given. The government should peddle real job opportunties, not false promises. Call center jobs, at the moment, fall under the category of real job opportunites.

I was told that here in Singapore, managing their own Gen-Y is also considered a problem although i now forget why. They also say that it is the first generation that grew up with shared global experiences courtesy of TV and movies. Maybe the problem (if it can really be called that) is also global.

Jeg

I totally got cvj’s Gawad Kalinga – Hezbollah comparison, that is, if the government isnt working, the people ought to step up instead of waiting and whining for government to do something. That’s what GK is doing.

And Antonio, I dont think anybody, even government, is peddling call center jobs as be-all and end-all. It’s just saying it’s there if you want it. In the same way, it is also peddling medical transcrition jobs to doctors not as substitute for a medical career but as a way to supplement their income so that they won’t have to leave and be nurses. They could stay here and still be doctors helping their fellow Filipinos.

and that, jeg, is where we all fall down. unfortunately, the prez has said that instead of pursuing opportunities abroad, doctors should just stay home and be medical transcriptionists.that sounds pretty much like a substitute for a medical career to me.

and i hope people stop misunderstanding me. i am not saying that government is peddling cc jobs as end-all/be-all. but that they are pushing it as prime jobs. there is huge difference. Seriously, it’s nice to be credited, but not for things i didn’t say. thanks guys.

About gawad kalinga, by jeg’s definition, we should also say GK=NPA. or even GK=Vigilantes

Jeg

doctors should just stay home and be medical transcriptionists.that sounds pretty much like a substitute for a medical career to me.

Only if the individual doctor wants it to be, antonio. The individual doctor could also be a medical transcriptionist while not putting his medical career on hold. He could set up a clinic in his neighborhood and help there… as a doctor.

but that they are pushing it as prime jobs.
Who is? Again that is up to the individual. See, Im actually agreeing with you. If you feel your abilities are bigger than a call center, you move on when a better opportunity comes. That’s what a lot of my officemates did. When an opportunity opened up in the company Im working for, they left the call center. While waiting for that opportunity, they didnt want to be ‘tambay sa kanto.’ They wanted to help themselves and their families pay the bills. So they went to work in call centers. Youre not begrudging them that, Im sure.

we should also say GK=NPA. or even GK=Vigilantes
Im leaving that unreplied to, antonio. Im just respeating it here for emphasis that you totally missed the point. 😀

you said it is also peddling medical transcrition jobs to doctors not as substitute for a medical career but as a way to supplement their income so that they wonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t have to leave and be nurses.

and i said the prez has said that instead of pursuing opportunities abroad, doctors should just stay home and be medical transcriptionists.that sounds pretty much like a substitute for a medical career to me.

let’s get the context straight, man. given what the president said, are you still insisting that the government is peddling medical transcrition jobs to doctors not as substitute? Let’s not sidestep this issue by going into individual preferences, because we aren’t even talking about that. I’m not even arguing about what individuals choose to do.

i am complaining about the government pushing these jobs as prime opportunities. and it was the president who said that doctors should just stay home to be transcriptionists. i never said it was beyond individual doctors’ capabilities to choose for themselves. its just that government shouldn’t push the idea as hard as it is doing now.

‘they’ (in case you missed it) = government.

And yes, whether to believe government is up to the individual, but still, government shouldn’t hardsell.

maybe you missed the point, bro. 😉 you said GK is about people stepping up “instead of waiting and whining for government to do something. ThatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s what GK is doing.” Isn’t that what the NPA is doing? Doing by itself what it perceives government to have failed to do? Aren’t vigilantes out to do the job that they believe the cops should do? C’mon. Gawad Kalinga is a charity. To compare it to Hamas or Hezbollah may be technically accurate if you’re into nitpicking. But look at the totality of the organizations you are comparing, and you realize how inappropriate the comparison is.

cvj

I don’t think you can compare Vigilantes with GK since the latter does not go around hunting down innocents, neither with the NPA since it does not extract revolutionary taxes and conciously aims to overthrow the government. The comparison with Hezbollah is more apt in many respects since GK is also funded by willing donors. It does not have an armed component because its religous philosophy is different and our country is still holding together relatively well despite the efforts of our politicians (with their ‘Imperial Manila’ rhetoric) and the long standing social inequalities. If the Philippines goes further down the road of becoming a failed state, our redemption will be found in organizations like Gawad Kalinga, in the same way that Lebanon has been saved (so far) by Hezbollah.

Jeg

Antonio: given what the president said, are you still insisting that the government is peddling medical transcrition jobs to doctors not as substitute?
Yes.

i am complaining about the government pushing these jobs as prime opportunities.
As opportunities. Not prime opportunities. In the case of med transcriptionists, as opportunities to keep them from leaving and not being able to be doctors as I stated in a previous post. I think it’s for the country’s good that our doctors dont leave, dont you?

Gawad Kalinga is a charity. To compare it to Hamas or Hezbollah may be technically accurate if youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re into nitpicking. But look at the totality of the organizations you are comparing, and you realize how inappropriate the comparison is.

If youre looking at the totality… Cvj compared GK to Hezbollah, the charitable institution and not Hezbollah the political institution who lobs rockets. We all know that the Lebanese government is weak. It cant get basic services to its people. So Hezbollah stepped up and set up schools, clinics, etc. So I wasnt looking at the totality, that much is obvious. GK isnt an armed organization. I dont think the distinction is nitpicking. Cherry picking maybe, not nitpicking, since the distinction is quite substantial. 😉

Schumey, the different voice recognition systems have taken the back seat for now. In my opinion, it will take a few more years before it will become mature enough for commercial success. Even then, the system will still need human editors that will fine tune the software, from time-to-time, based on the peculiarities of the individual users.

The human transcriptists/editors roles may/ will evolve as time goes by but I don’t think it will fade in the immediate future.